


Lavender Moon

by formidophile



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-10 08:11:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15945314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/formidophile/pseuds/formidophile
Summary: Stephanie Brown is haunted by her past, her family, and her own self-doubt. Over the years, she meets many people who seem to have shadows hanging over them - including another girl her age who has been hurt, like she has. Keeps secrets, like she does.Soon enough, she begins to haunt Stephanie, too.Everything will be fine.





	1. Chapter 1

“I think I love him, like I’m _in love._ I mean, he’s always there for me, and it’s..” She heard the other girl take in a breath over the voice channel. “I feel like a normal person around him. Are we too young to decide this stuff?

She tugged her hair out from under her headset. “You are asking the _wrong_ person. Also, we’re the same age.”

“You never talk about someones.”

“I don’t..I don’t need someones. I have to focus on school.”

 _“Every_ time you go out somewhere, you tell me about some _cute girl_ you saw.” The cheekiness was dripping from her voice as she continued. “There has to be someone. A crush?” A mock gasp. “A _boy?”_

“I have a crush on getting out of school and leaving the state.”

“You always talk about how much you hate cities, but you’re so obsessed with coming to Gotham.” She heard shuffling on the other end, and then silence. A message popped into the chat saying “one moment.”

She took a deep breath, adjusted her headset, and looked at the clock. Three in the morning was late, but it wasn’t the worst hour she’s been awake at. It did interest her how she had just been talking to Stephanie for little over two hours. She pulled a chunk of quartz off of her nightstand and fidgeted with it until the channel popped back into life.

“I’m sorry I dropped off like that.”

“It’s fine. We all have stuff.” She ran her fingers over the edges of the point. “Hey, did you notice the time?”

“It’s past three already, yeah. Are you gonna head in?”

“..I probably should.”

“You don’t have any class tomorrow.” She said it lightly, with a charming intonation. Inviting her to keep the channel open for an hour longer.

“I shouldn’t muck up my sleep schedule again. Want to play something tomorrow?”

“Sure, I can make time. Night, Mary.”

“Night, Steph.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wrote this on a whim. it's supposed to go along something else i'm working on, and wasn't supposed to be the first thing i put on ao3, but it's a thing i finished and i couldn't wait to put it up! i did a thing! have the thing. also, this chapter is set when they're both twenty.


	2. Chapter 2

Admittedly, Stephanie wasn’t _really_ supposed to invite people into her apartment. She didn’t exactly have some super-high tech hideaway to stow her Spoiler gear like...well, most everyone else seemed to.

“-but her friends were so _nice!_ And we went to this club, and I’m _really_ not a club person but I was already dressed so I just went and we met up with her friends and one of them said we could get _pierced_ together-”

But it had been a while since she had a girl over, and even longer since Mary had seemed so care-free.

Mary was normally at least a _little_ introverted, but she was starting to seem downright reclusive. She imagined that she was probably overburdened by all the stress that came from the move. Moving to _Gotham,_ no less, which was a lot bigger and more dense than the one she grew up in. So she invited her out for lunch again, and called a few people to meet her. She told Mary first, of course, not wanting to just spring it on her when she had enough anxiety in her head.

Mary and Harper connected almost immediately. The subculture thing, she guessed. After hanging out at the diner until closing, they elected to go off to some goth club together, and a few hours later, here she was, hanging upside-down on next to her on the couch. Stephanie was sitting there with her legs folded, just watching Mary talk while some pop series played idly on the television.

“-and Harper said we should do it again some night! Steph? Steph. Do you hear me?”

She snapped herself out of it. “Yeah! Yeah, of course.” Stephanie smiled to herself and sat a little closer, poking Mary on the shoulder. “So, are you gonna ask her out again?”

“Oh. Uh.” Mary let herself slid down the couch and righted herself properly. “No. It...It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t a _date,_ just...”

“You just went to a club with her, got drinks, met her friends…” She put her chin in her hand and watched the other girl’s expression. 

“..She didn’t think it was a date, did she?” Suddenly, Mary seemed intensely focused on her hands. “I didn’t...That’s not what I meant. I mean…She...”

“Hey, no. Come on.” She put a gentle hand on the other girl’s shoulder so she would look up from wringing her hands. “Would it be so bad if it was?”

Mary didn’t look up. She sat there for a few minutes in silence, watching her black nails forming little crescents in the skin of her hands, over and over. Her mouth opened as if to say something, but she bit her lip and kept the words inside of her.

“It’s okay,” Stephanie whispered, “you can tell me.”

Mary was visibly tense, and still said nothing for several more minutes before she spoke, voice unsteady. “I’m not good with...intimacy. _Relationships.”_ She took a deep, slow breath before she spoke again, with a little more confidence. “It’s... _not_ something I prioritize.” Stephanie eyed her kindly as she spoke, still watching Mary mark her own hands. Neither girl moved for a time until Mary abruptly stood up from the couch.

“I should go.” She mumbled, picking her purse off of the floor. “I’m...sorry I made things weird.”

“No, no. It’s fine.” Stephanie stood and offered her friend a hug, and it was returned with a little more vigor than she anticipated. “We should hang out more often. I missed this.” She was surprised when Mary pulled away, digging into her bag for something.

“..That reminds me,” she said, pulling out a key with a black rubber ring around it and holding it out, “I wanted you to have this. It’s a key to my place.” Stephanie took it, smiling a little.

Mary composed herself and patted her hair down, giving Stephanie a look before she turned to leave. “Promise you’ll come visit me some time?”

“Yeah, I promise. Soon.” Stephanie said, still smiling and holding the tiny key to her chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is just a lil tidbit that happened between chapters one and two of bittersweet constrain.


	3. Chapter 3

The snow crunched under their boots as they trekked through the park, quieter than it usually would have been during the afternoon, but not deserted. They located a bench off of the salted paths, just near the wooded perimeter that surrounded them. Mary jumped up on the back of the bench and hugged the trunk of a tree.

Stephanie sat down to rest her legs, amused as she watched Mary try to jump up the tree. “You’re going to hurt yourself.” On cue, she saw her foot _slip_ on the snowy back of the bench, and the girl desperately clung to the tree to stay upright.

“I accept those consequences.” She planted her feet firmly back on the bench and looked up into the branches. “I haven’t seen this much snow in _ever._ I want a better view.” She checked her footing, crouched, and then tried to jump up the tree and grab onto a sturdy limb - and promptly fell into the snow with a yelp.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Stephanie asked through giggles, as Mary wiped snow off of her face. She pushed herself off of the ground before the other girl could get up to help her and climbed over the bench again, before stopping herself and turning to her friend.

“..Could you help me up? Please?”

She smiled a little, getting up and moving around the bench. “Don’t move too much, okay? My ankle still hurts.” She bent down before Mary, and the other girl timidly put a boot on her shoulder, and Stephanie grabbed the leg to steady her. “You’re doing fine.” Then the other foot, and then she hefted the other girl so that she could reach the tree branches, which she climbed into with a face full of glee.

Mary sighed dreamily, looking out at the park. She saw Stephanie move to sit back down, and almost jumped to the ground. “Hey! Come up here with me.”

_“Nooo._ My ankle is _fucked,_ remember?” She looked up at Mary on her perch.

She kicked her feet back and forth, tilting her head down at Stephanie with an impish grin. “You never told me what happened.”

“Someone tripped me, that’s all.” She shrugged. She could recall last night, after her and Robin finished tracking down and up-and-up arms trafficking operation to a seedy warehouse on the docks. Instead of telling Bruce, her and Damian took care of the thugs themselves, but one of them had gotten a lucky opening, grabbed her by the foot - and swung her into the tiny Robin. He was still teasing her about it. “I got them back for it.”

“Get me a hair if you see them again.”

She snapped her head around to stare at her friend with wide eyes. “A hair?” She blinked. “What the hell for?”

Mary only grinned a little more, sitting leisurely on her little perch. “So I can get back at them, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> written to get me out of this stupid dumb funk i'm in. occurred between chapters 2 and 3, the next one probably will too!


End file.
